TBR Declutter! – Down the TBR Hole #23

Credit, as always, goes to the wonderful Lia @ Lost in a Story for this decluttering idea! I’m 200+ books deep into my TBR now… find out how many books I’ve removed, so far, below!

The aim is to declutter your tbr shelf. To do this:

Go to your goodreads to-read shelf.

Order on ascending date added.

Take the first 5 (or 10 if you’re feeling adventurous) books. Of course if you do this weekly, you start where you left off the last time.

Read the synopsesof the books

Decide: keep itor should it go?

Synopsis: An estranged father’s weekend with his beloved five-year-old daughter turns into a nightmare when she gets into the lift of a city centre tower block and goes down without him. She vanishes without a trace. It sets off a race against time, and a nationwide manhunt, to find her. As the police investigation closes in, suspicion falls on those closest to her – with devastating consequences.

This has mixed reviews from some of my blogging friends on Goodreads, but they’re all 3 stars and up, which is good! It’s also easy enough and cheap enough to get on my Kindle. If I ever spot this down at the 99p mark, I’ll give it a try.

Synopsis: A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of curious photographs.

A horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.

Honestly, I have so many other books I want to read and the thought of reading this one doesn’t fill me with joy. I’m quite happy on missing out the hype surrounding this one. Plus, the name Ransom Riggs really grinds my gears.

Synopsis: The perfect wife. A fairytale family. Don’t believe your eyes …
Jeanie and Matthew are a happily married couple who both have teenage children from previous relationships.

No one said it would be easy to raise a blended family under one roof but Jeanie and Matthew are strong. They will make it work.

And whilst Jeanie’s step-daughter Scarlett rejects her, Jeanie will just have to try harder to win her over.

But Jeanie has a past. A terrible secret she thought she’d buried a long time ago. And now, it’s coming to the surface, threatening to destroy her new marriage.

Someone is playing a terrifying game on Jeanie and she must put a stop to it once and for all.

After all, a fairytale needs a happy ending … doesn’t it?

This has really good ratings for a cheap / cliche sound mystery thriller! I like the sound of it and at the same time I hate the sound of it. I have already got this one purchased, back from late 2016 when I went a bit mad on the 99p books!

Synopsis: The rich are different. But fate is blind.

Down-on-his-luck artist Scott Burroughs would usually take the ferry back to New York from Martha’s Vineyard, but he is unexpectedly offered a spare seat on the Bateman family’s private jet. Then just minutes after take-off, the plane crashes into the ocean and of the eight passengers and three crew, only Scott and the Batemans’ small son, JJ, are left alive.

The extraordinary nature of their survival, combined with the fact that David Bateman was CEO of a populist TV news channel, means that Scott will not be returning to anonymity. Along with the orphaned boy, he is engulfed by a maelstrom of speculation, which soon overtakes the official investigation into the tragedy.

Who else was on the plane? Was there a bomb, a missile? Who is Scott Burroughs?

So I have been eager to read this one for ages, and I have no idea why. The synopsis doesn’t even sound that great, but for some reason this one has been one of those all holy books I’ve been desperate to read.

Synopsis: Sophie has the great misfortune of being the eldest of three daughters, destined to fail miserably should she ever leave home to seek her fate. But when she unwittingly attracts the ire of the Witch of the Waste, Sophie finds herself under a horrid spell that transforms her into an old lady. Her only chance at breaking it lies in the ever-moving castle in the hills: the Wizard Howl’s castle. To untangle the enchantment, Sophie must handle the heartless Howl, strike a bargain with a fire demon, and meet the Witch of the Waste head-on. Along the way, she discovers that there’s far more to Howl—and herself—than first meets the eye.

Oh god, o h g o d. I forget about this sometimes and then I remember and fall in love all over again. I often say I have no fictional crushes from books but HOWL. Admittedly, I only love Howl from the movie at this moment in time because I haven’t read the book but I’m sure it’s just the same. (Although… Christian Bale’s voice does help in making Howl that extra little bit sexy…) Oh my god, I need to get this one.

Synopsis: Something mysterious and terrible is happening throughout Victorian London: Ghosts are disap­pearing. When this reaches the attention of the Ghost Bureau, the diligent but clueless Mr. Lapsewood, a paranormal paper-pusher, is sent to investigate, and what he discovers is grave. The Black Rot has arrived—a voracious spiritual infestation whereby empty haunted houses suck in unsuspecting ghosts and imprison them. Lapsewood’s investigation weaves through the plotlines of several other memorable characters—both living and dead—including an undertaker’s son who can see ghosts, a serial throat-slasher reminiscent of Jack the Ripper, an evangelical exorcist, and many more. The living and dead must work together if they hope to destroy the Black Rot—before it destroys both the ghost and human worlds.

Someone please explain to me how a middle-grade book (that’s not a classic like Matilda or iconic like Howl’s Moving Castle) got onto my TBR?

Synopsis: When Leeson was arrested in 1995 for bringing Barings Bank to its knees, it initially seemed as if he had single-handedly crushed the company. Indeed, it was he alone who found himself in the dark confines of a Singapore jail, from where he wrote Rogue Trader. Now updated for the twentieth anniversary of the collapse of Barings, this is his story of a broken system; of a cast of characters blind to anything but profits – whatever the cost.

Yes, so this clearly isn’t my normal sort of non-fiction read but I do really want to read this and find out how Leeson and others got away with so much swindling!

Synopsis: Willard is a tormented veteran of the carnage in the South Pacific who can’t save his beautiful wife, Charlotte, from a slow death by cancer no matter how much sacrificial blood he pours on his ‘prayer log’.

Carl and Sandy Henderson, a husband-and-wife team of serial killers, trawl America’s highways searching for suitable models to photograph and exterminate.

The spider-handling preacher Roy and his crippled virtuoso-guitar-playing sidekick are running from the law.

And caught in the middle of all this is Arvin, Willard and Charlotte’s orphaned son, who grows up to be a good but also violent man in his own right.

Have you ever noticed how literary fiction novels tend to only be 250 pages, or so? I guess there is only so much fluffy almost-nothing plot you can write. That being said, I do love some literary fiction, especially when it sounds disturbing like this one.

Synopsis: Ann Rule was a writer working on the biggest story of her life, tracking down a brutal mass-murderer. Little did she know that the young man who was her close friend was the savage slayer she was hunting.

Ted Bundy was everyone’s picture of a natural ‘winner’ – handsome, charming, brilliant in law school, successful with women, on the verge of a dazzling career. On January 24, 1989 Ted Bundy was executed for the murders of three young women; he subsequently confessed to taking the lives of at least thirty-five more young women, coast to coast.

This is his story – the story of his magnetic power, his unholy compulsion, his demonic double life, and his string of helpless victims. It was written by a woman who thought she knew Ted Bundy, until she began to put all the evidence together, and the whole terrifying picture emerged…

This is the only Ann Rule book that I have on my TBR because it’s heralded as such a masterpiece. To be honest, at almost 600 pages it seems a little daunting, and some people say it gets too wordy in places and drags on. I hate draggy books, but I hate them even more when they’re non-fiction… I am interested in this one though as I don’t know an awful lot about Bundy in comparison to some other serial killers (Richard Ramirez & Charles Manson, I’m looking at you).

Synopsis: The God Delusion caused a sensation when it was published in 2006. Within weeks it became the most hotly debated topic, with Dawkins himself branded as either saint or sinner for presenting his hard-hitting, impassioned rebuttal of religion of all types.

His argument could hardly be more topical. While Europe is becoming increasingly secularized, the rise of religious fundamentalism, whether in the Middle East or Middle America, is dramatically and dangerously dividing opinion around the world. In America, and elsewhere, a vigorous dispute between ‘intelligent design’ and Darwinism is seriously undermining and restricting the teaching of science. In many countries religious dogma from medieval times still serves to abuse basic human rights such as women’s and gay rights. And all from a belief in a God whose existence lacks evidence of any kind.

Dawkins attacks God in all his forms. He eviscerates the major arguments for religion and demonstrates the supreme improbability of a supreme being. He shows how religion fuels war, foments bigotry and abuses children.

Ooh, now here’s a topic that can start a few fights (and it has!!!), religion. I don’t want to get into to it too much but I am an atheist and I do have some views on religion that I won’t share on here 🙃

I live in the UK, so religion (Christianity, Catholicism etc) isn’t really a big thing over here, anymore. I will never slander a person for having a belief in God, but I am interested in reading this novel.

Wow, Zuky, you did such a great job at decluttering this week! 2 books removed!

How many of these books do you know and want to read? Do you disagree with any of my verdicts? Let me know!

Post navigation

8 thoughts on “TBR Declutter! – Down the TBR Hole #23”

Sacrébleu @ the removal of Miss Peregrine! 😂 Understandable though when there’s SO MANY other awesome books out there lately. I’m trying so hard to scale things down, but it’s near on impossible these days. I’m my own worst enemy 😕 This is still my favourite weekly post from you, keep it up, it encourages me to go do a clear out. But it’s so hard to decide….😵